Why Anaheim Will WIn the AL West

The Angels trail American League West leading Texas Rangers by 4 1/2 games with 34 games remaining to the regular season. I strongly believe the Angels will be the team to watch coming down the stretch and have an excellent chance to catch and surpass the Texas Rangers.

They have a far easier schedule than the Texas Rangers over the last 34 games. Both teams have feasted on sub-500 teams this season with Texas posting a 39-21 mark and the Angels a 36-26 mark. Against winning record teams both the Rangers and Angels have posted identical .500 records. The Angels will play only 13 games of the remaining 34 games against winning record teams. Six of those 13 games will be head-to-head against Texas with a three game series beginning this weekend in Arlington and then a three game set at home to close out the season September 26-28. Moreover, this is nine fewer games facing winning record teams than Texas will face.

Team Rankings
The Angels rank 20th with 502 runs scored, 18th with a .250 team batting average, 24th with a .311 on-base-percentage, and 20th with a .389 slugging-percentage. The Rangers rank third with 660 runs scored, second with a .277 team batting average, sixth with a .334 on-base-percentage, and third with a .445 slugging-percentage.

The Angels pitching staff will be the dominant reason why they can win the West. They rank fifth in the majors with a 3.47 ERA, fourth with 79 quality starts, ninth with a 1.26 WHIP, and 13th allowing a .252 opponent batting average. Texas ranks 12th with a staff ERA of 3.77, third with 80 quality starts, 10th with a staff WHIP of 1.27, and eighth allowing a .247 opponent batting average.

The Angels bullpen is far superior to that of the Rangers and is a major reason I strongly believe they can overtake the Rangers in the West. The Angels sport a solid 4.46 ERA by their relievers ranking ninth while the Rangers relievers have posted a 4.09 ERA ranking 25th.

Texas Gauntlet
The Rangers have a very tough schedule finishing a four game set against Boston by Thursday and then facing the Angels for three-game weekend series. They will have Monday off to possibly recognize that their division lead is gone. It does not get any better having to face a solid Tampa Bay Rays team for three games beginning Tuesday and then having to travel very late to play a three game set in Boston followed by a three game set in Tampa Bay. The worst part of this schedule is that their last home game against the Rays on Thursday starts at 8:05 PM ET so they won’t get into the Boston Hotel until at least 4 AM and having to play that night will be a monumental task.

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